na foine ting: "this is a fine thing, here" or "look at this fine thing" or "I've got a very fine thing here, check it out" or "well, this is a damn pretty fucking kettle of fish; nice work, buckethead."

Gavin and I took Lili to the Roasted Coffee Bean today, after I picked her up from daycare.

We'd stopped at the bank, where I took a chance and parked in a handicapped spot because there was otherwise going to be a massive, exhausting, 200 or so yard crutch to the bank front door. With a five year old in tow.

When I came back from the bank, a parking cop was already standing by the truck. I crutched over.

"I'm back," I said, and she looked straight at me and my shocking pink cast and said

"You can't park here without a handicapped placard. This is a three hundred dollar ticket."

I said "I know, I'm sorry, but this was the closest I could get, the nearest parking spot was a really long way away and I wasn't even sure I could make it that far."

"Do you have a handicapped placard?"

"No."

Gavin's watching all this. "You can't park here without a placard," she told me. Looking at me, and looking at him.

I looked at him, and looked at her. "I know. I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

She waved at Gavin. "See you later, alligator," she said, and walked off without giving me a ticket. Or saying anything else.

"Why didn't she give you a ticket?" Gavin wanted to know.

"Because she wanted to make sure I understood the rules, and I think she got it that I did," I said.